Treatment of textile fabrics



Patented Mar. 30, 1937 TREATMENT OF TEXTILE FABRICS George Schneider,Montclair, N. J., assignor to Celanese Corporation of America, acorporation of Delaware No Drawing. Application November 3, 1934, SerialNo. 751,415

2 Claims. (Cl. 28-1) This invention relates to the treatment of fabricscontaining yarns of organic derivatives of cellulose and relates moreparticularly to the treatment of fabrics consisting wholly of yarns oforganic derivatives of cellulose in order to preshrink the same and/orto make the same of a closer construction than possible by weavingprocesses.

An object of this invention is the preshrinliing and/or tightening ofthe structure of an all organic derivative of cellulose fabric by aneconomic and expeditious method. A further object such as dresses,shirts, collars, etc.

of this invention is the production of novel effects on fabrics, part ofthe yarns of which contain organic derivatives of celluose. Otherobjects of the invention will appear from the following detaileddescription.

not further shrink. Thus, fabric may be pre shrunk to a given width andformed into articles,

may be scoured or otherwise processed without shrinking or causingdamage to the article at the joint of two or more pieces of fabric whichhave been sewn together, regardless of the directions of warp and weftat the joint.

By employing this invention, fabrics may be loosely woven, thus savingconsiderable cost in their formation and then treated to shrink thesame, thereby tightening the construction of the material. However,fabrics may be woven as closely as feasible, such as a taffeta, and thentreated with a shrinking agent to obtain a closer construction thanwould be possible by merely weaving the yarns. In this way, close typefabrics may be obtained at a great economy over prior methods of weavingthe same type construction. Further, fabrics treated with the shrinkingagent obtain the propertyof non-slipping fabrics, that is, the warp andweft appear to be anchored to each other and even in open fabric orloosely woven fabric, a tendency of the weft'to slip on the warp isgreatly reduced.

By employing this invention as to fabrics having only part of theyarns'of organic derivatives of cellulose, the remaining yarns beingcotton, silk, wool or the like, many novel effects may be Such articlesproduced. Thus, a fabric having an all cellulose acetate warp'and a weftoftwo threads of cellulose acetate, alternating with two threads of silkor cotton, when treated according to this invention produce a crepe orcockle efiect. Obviously, 5 by employing different combinations of warpand/or weft yarns containing two or more types of yarns, at least one ofwhich contains an organic derivative of cellulose, many novel anddecorative effects may be produced.

In accordance with my invention, then, I treat fabric made wholly ofyarns containing organic derivatives of cellulose or containing yarns oforganic derivatives of cellulose interwoven and knitted with yarns ofother materials with a l5 shrinking agent consisting of an aqueousalcohol solution for a suitable period of time and at a suitabletemperature to give thedesired degree of shrinking for the purposeintended.

Fabric to be treated by my invention may be any suitable woven, knitted,netted or knotted fabric. This fabric contains yarns of organicderivatives of cellulose, such as organic esters of cellulose andcellulose ethers. Examples of cellulose esters are cellulose acetate,cellulose formate, 25 cellulose propionate and cellulose butyrate, whileexamples of cellulose ethers are ethyl cellulose, methyl cellulose andbenzyl cellulose. While the best results are obtained by the treatmentof fabrics that consist wholly of these yarns of organic 3o derivativesof cellulose, novel effects may be ob tained by the treatment of fabricsthat contain, in addition to the organic derivatives of cellulose, otherfibres, such as silk, cotton, reconstituted cellulose, etc. 35

Any suitable fabric, as described above, may be treated with thisshrinking agent by submerging the same in abath maintained at atemperature dependentupon the duration of treatment and upon theconcentration of the alcohol in the bath. 40 The treating bath may be asolution of ethyl alcohol, -methyl alcohol, etc. in water. Thepercentage of alcohol in the water may vary from less than 20 to Thetime of treatment will depend upon the concentration of the alcohol, 45and more particularly upon the temperature at which the treatment iscarried out. Othermethods of subjecting the fabric to the treating agentmay be employed, for example, by spraying the material with the aqueousalcohol solution. 50

The treating bath may be maintained at room temperature or at elevatedtemperatures, such as up to the boiling point of. the treating liquid.When treating a fabric consisting wholly of yarns containing organicderivatives of cellulose and 66 maintaining the treating bath at roomtemperamay vary. from less than A a second to 2 seconds in duration.

' After the treatment of fabrics in the shrinking agent, the excesssolution may be removed from the fabric by passing the same through niprollers or thru a pair of rollers covered with an absorbent material,such as rollers covered with linen or cotton, the same being at roomtemperature or at elevated temperatures. For example, a laundry manglemay be employed.

As a guideto the various concentrations of solutions, temperatures andtime of treatment and to the amount of shrinking obtained, the followingtable is given, it being understood that this invention is not limitedto the exact figures therein given.

Shrinkage takes place almost instantly upon immersion of the fabric inthe treating liquid. However, if the time of treatment does not exceed10 minutes at room temperature, or 3 seconds at elevated temperature,even in the very 3 concentrated baths there is produced in the fab-2,075,143 I v y ric a shrinkage of as much as 25% in either direction.The shrunk fabric is very soft of hand and is of a correspondingstrength to fabrics of the same weight and similar yarn.

As an illustration and not as a limitation, the

following example is given:

i Example by air-drying. The resulting fabric is of very tightly woventaffeta which has been shrunk 17% in the warp direction and 11% in thefilling direction.

It is to be understood that the foregoing detailed description is merelygiven by way of illustration, and many alterations may be made thereinwithout departing from the spirit .of my invention.

Having described my invention, what I desire .u secure by Letters Patentis;

1. Process for the preparation of a taffeta, containing yarns of organicderivatives of cellulose, having the appearance of being closely woven,which comprises treating a loosely woven 'taifeta for from to 3 secondsin a bath of aqueous alcohol maintained at substantially the boilingpoint thereof, I

2. Process for the preparation of a taffeta, containing yarns ofcellulose acetate, having the appearance of being closely woven, whichcomprises treating a loosely woven taffeta for one second in a bathcontaining four parts of water and onepart of ethyl alcohol, which bathis maintained at a temperature of 88 0., whereby the taffeta is shrunk17% in the warp direction and 11% in the filling direction.

. GEORGE SCHNEIDER.

